Monday, June 9, 2014

Missing the Point in Locating the Land of Promise – Part II

Continuing from the
last post regarding how Theorists start out by looking at maps and
trying to locate an area that is a Peninsula, has two or three seas around it,
and has something that they think will pass for a narrow neck of land, then
proclaiming it the location of Lehi’s landing and name it the Land of Promise.
In the last post, it ended discussing whether or not the Lamanites
would have been literate after the 120 years of savage and brutal wars that
wiped out the entire Nephite nation and people (and even if they were literate before that time).

Left: Atilla the Hun, though illiterate, slaughtered Goth tribes in
what is now Germany and Austria on his way the conquest of Rome, ruling
territories from Germany to the Caspian Sea; Right: Also illiterate, Ashoka the
Great killed all his brothers and slaughtered a hundred thousand citizens on
his way to ruling India Pakistan Nepal and Afghanistan So, let’s be realistic
about this—the more vicious the person, the less inclined they are to
intellectual pursuits. And by the time of the final Lamanite wars, there is no
evidence that the Lamanites themselves were literate, and certainly after the
length of time of their long civil wars. As Moroni stated after the fall of
Cumorah and all the Nephites had been destroyed (Mormon 8:7): “the Lamanites
are at war one with another; and the whole face of this land is one continual
round of murder and bloodshed; and no one knoweth the end of the war” (Mormon
8:8), and nearly forty years later, added, “their wars are exceedingly fierce
among themselves” (Moroni 1:2) 421 A.D. One might ask Sorenson
how he thinks any books were written, copied, read, etc., by the Lamanites
during and after this violent and bloodthirsty time. And as stated in the last post, even the Mulekites, in less than 400 years, lost their original language altogether and were not literate, though they sprang form the royal house of Judah. Now we come to the
interesting part. What makes anyone think that any Nephite writings survived
this period? Mormon tells us that he “began to be old; and knowing it to be the
last struggle of my people, and having been commanded of the Lord that I should
not suffer the records which had been handed down by our fathers, which were
sacred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would
destroy them) therefore I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid
up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to me by the
hand of the Lord, save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son
Moroni” (Mormon 6:6). Moroni tells us that
after Cumorah, the Lamanites hunted down all the Nephites who escaped the
battle and killed them all (Mormon 8:2). It cannot be over-emphasized that the
Lamanites were “hell bent on” destroying all the Nephites, everything Nephite, “because
of their hatred” (Moroni 1:2). In fact, the Lamanites had a history of their
hatred toward the Nephites (Alma 26:9), and anyone who disagreed with them,
even their own people (Alma 43:11), and took up arms against them (Alma 24:2),
especially savage in their hatred were those Nephite defectors who became Lamanites (Alma 43:7).

Obviously, this
hatred, which constantly degenerated into bloodshed, was directed at the
Nephites, but also anyone who worshipped God, and all such “knew that if they
should fall into the hands of the Lamanites, that whosoever should worship God
in spirit and in truth, the true and the living God, the Lamanites would
destroy” (Alma 43:10). By the time of the final wars that culminated in the
battle at Cumorah in 385 A.D., the Lamanites were so depraved and steeped in
bloodthirsty wantonness, that the Lord warned Mormon that any records the
Lamanites found would be destroyed. So Mormon, commanded of the Lord, buried
all the Nephites records in his possession. So again, one might
ask Sorenson, why he thinks any books written by the Nephites would have
survived that final purge? In fact, who could even imagine that the Lamanites
would want to preserve any written
records, codices, books, et al, that the Nephites possessed? Perhaps these two
examples might suffice.

Spanish priests burned thousands of Maya
codices or books in the 15th and 16th centuries 1) Sorenson’s own
writing tells us that the Spanish conquistadors burned thousands of Maya books.
Actually, it was their priests, namely the Bishop (and Inquisitor) of the Roman
Catholic Archdiocese of Yucatan, Franciscan Friar Diego de Landa, who ordered
in 1562 the burning of 5000 Maya cult images and 27 hieroglyphic scrolls, who
said, “We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they
contained nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the
devil, we burned them all.” These codices were
primary written records of Maya civilization, and it is claimed “their range of
subject matter in all likelihood embraced more topics than those recorded in
stone and buildings, and was more like what is found on painted ceramics.”
Alonso de Zorita wrote that in 1540 he saw numerous such books in the
Guatemalan highlands that “...recorded their history for more than eight
hundred years back, and that were interpreted for me by very ancient Indians.” Only three codices
survived this holocaust, approximately 208 pages (the authenticity of a fourth,
the Grolier Codex, fragments of 11 pages, is disputed).

In 1933, students giving Nazi salutes and
singing anthems from several universities gathered in Berlin and burned 20,000
books deemed unGerman 2) When Adolf Hitler
gained control of Germany, a large number of students from several universities
gathered in Berlin, along with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and
protected by brown-shirted storm troopers, burned 20,000 books on the Opera
Square. As Goebbels proclaimed watching the bonfire, “And thus you do well in this midnight hour to
commit to the flames the evil spirit of the past.” In both cases, the
important books and records of past generations were destroyed by fanatical zealots
proclaiming the destruction of evil. This is so similar to the fanatical nature
of the Lamanites at the time of their final victories, that one cannot imagine
anything Nephite surviving. In fact, we are told that during Mormon’s rapid
retreat, trying to save as many civilian Nephites as possible “that whatsoever
lands we had passed by, and the inhabitants thereof were not gathered in, were
destroyed by the Lamanites, and their towns, and villages, and cities were burned with fire” (Mormon
5:5—emphasis mine). It is simply not realistic to think that any books or
writings survived this Lamanite holocaust that destroyed everthing in its path,
including people, buildings, towns and cities. It is simply not realistic to think that the Lamanites, seething with this thousand-year hatred would want, let along keep, anything Nephite, especially books. While we know the Nephites had books
(Helaman 3:15), which contained their proceedings and history (Helaman 3:13-14), what Mormon didn't bury (and there are reports of early Church leaders seeing wagon loads of them hidden in Cumorah) would not have been preserved by the Lamanites. Another example of
Theorists picking an area rather than the scriptural reference, is seen in the
Great Lakes Theorists whose chief claim to location is based upon the Hill
Cumorah in Western (upstate) New York. Nothing else in the entire area fits any
description of the scriptural record, yet they hold to that location as though
it has been sacredly revealed to them. Still another area is
Baja California, chosen because it is a peninsula, yet, there is no suggestion
in the scriptural record that the Land of Promise was a peninsula. It was an
island (2 Nephi 10:20), and while the Land Southward was nearly surrounded by
water, it had a narrow neck of land connecting it to the Land Northward, which had
a sea to the east (Ether 9:3; 14:13), a sea to the north (Ether 15:8), and a
sea to the west (Ether 10:20), and basically seas in every direction (Helaman
3:8),which pretty well confirms Jacob's statement of the Land of Promise being an island (2 Nephi 10:20).

The point is, as has
been stated in the last post, and here innumerable times before, the only—and we mean only—criteria for locating the Land of Promise, and
that is that it must match all—and we
mean all—of the descriptions written about in the scriptural record first,
and foremost. Other criteria can be used, but it is the scriptural record that
is where we start, pursue and end our search. Twenty-seven of these
scripturaly-documented criteria were covered in some degree during our posts: “So
Where is the Land of Promise?” Parts 1 thru 12, posted between December 26,
2013 and January 7, 2014. All the others can be found in our book Lehi Never Saw Mesoamerica. And every one of these criteria is found in Andean Peru as is outlined in that book!

2 comments:

Hi there,I am reading this blog with deep interest. I am familiar with Carol Phyllis Olive's work but am always interested in a different view.If I may make an inquiry-It seems your theory on the entire matter of South America being the Promised Land, and the land of the Book of Mormon, rests on the statement that there has never been a king in South America. However, on 17 Sept 1822, Brazil got the shackles off from Portugal rule, and became an independant nation, and on 1 October of that year Pedro I became the first king of Brazil. He was followed by his son amongst others. I learned this from the Brazilians whilst spending time in that country on a few occasions.I think you may need to revisit this with some research- of course, seeing the depth of your study and research, you probably already have an explanation for this.Would love to hear your thoughts. If I have missed something, please set me right :)

It is surprising you wrote above "It seems your theory on the entire matter of South America being the Promised Land, and the land of the Book of Mormon, rests on the statement that there has never been a king in South America." This, since you were responding to a post that stated quite emphatically, " the only—and we mean only—criteria for locating the Land of Promise, and that is that it must match all—and we mean all—of the descriptions written about in the scriptural record first, and foremost." Modern era/historical history and kings have nothing to do with the scripturaly-documented record of the criteria to be used to determine a location of the land of promise.As was stated, "Other criteria can be used, but it is the scriptural record that is where we start, pursue and end our search."Kings and modern commentary are "other criteria," which falls far behind the scriptural record and only should be used in support of what the scriptural record tells us since it is modern info not necessarily accurate compared to a 2500 year old document of the time.It was also stated that "Twenty-seven of these scripturaly-documented criteria were covered in some degree during our earlier posts." For an example, see: “So Where is the Land of Promise?” Parts 1 thru 12, posted between December 26, 2013 and January 7, 2014. All the other criteria (some 65 in all) can be found in our book Lehi Never Saw Mesoamerica. And every one of these criteria is found in Andean Peru as is outlined in that book!Regarding the king of Brazil, we will respond to that in a future post since it has some interest to the overall understanding of no kings in the Land of Promise.